


Mea Culpa

by seektheinfinite



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Attempt at Humor, First Kiss, Fix-It of Sorts, M/M, Post-Skyfall, So is Bond, q is surprised
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 14:22:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5420375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seektheinfinite/pseuds/seektheinfinite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“Can I at least put some clothes on first, or is this a clothes off kind of mission?” This time the smile was almost genuine as Bond indicated his almost naked form.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>Eve considered him for a moment, trying to hide the smile from her own face at seeing a hint of the old 007 appearing through the cracks. “Well, unless you and Q have something going on that I don’t know about I would say definitely clothes on.”</i>
</p>
<p>After the events of Skyfall Bond arrives back at MI6 to find that Q has locked himself in Q branch and won't come out. Q's minions are littering the corridor, Q needs to find the answer and Bond needs to take drastic action.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mea Culpa

**Author's Note:**

> After the wonderful reception you all gave me for my first dabble in the 00Q fandom I just had to write some more. This is not what it started out to be, but then my fics never are. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

“Ah 007, I heard you were back. It’s good to see you.” Eve had entered the men’s locker room without so much as knock. It was late, and she knew that pretty much all the other 00’s has gone home for the evening. Only the techs, and of course 007 who had just arrived back from Scotland were still here.

James was momentarily startled by Eve’s sudden appearance in the small room. He had just spent the last twenty minutes trying to wash away the memories of the last few days. He had hoped that if he stood under the hot spray long enough he could forget that only three days ago he had watched his childhood home burn to the ground only a matter of minutes before he had lost M.

If Eve noticed the slight tremble that ran through Bond’s frame as she called his name she didn’t mention it. If it had been any other time she would have been worried for the agent but she knew that he had been through a rough couple of days, and like herself and the rest of MI6 was running on very little, if any sleep.

“Yes well there’s a lot of paperwork involved when you family home burns to the ground, and the boss of MI6 gets killed at the same time.” Bond tried to affect an air of nonchalance, projecting to Eve the face that she was used to seeing; the cool, calm collected 007. Not that of the small, lonely, lost James Bond who had no idea what he was going to do now.

Eve flushed. “James, I’m sorry doesn’t seem quite enough.” Eve moved towards Bond, raising her arms as though going for a hug, completely ignoring the fact that he was still dripping wet from the shower and only wearing a towel. If this had been any other time she had no doubt James would have been leering after her in his usual way; even though she had made it clear on several occasions that she was really not interested. She thought there was just some small part of him that couldn’t help himself, like he was pre-programmed to be the world’s biggest flirt.

To her surprise Bond took a step backwards, one hand still firmly on the towel around his waist, whilst he gestured with the other for her to stop.

“Miss Moneypenny, if you are thinking of hugging me then I think you should stop.” There was a moment of silence as James fought to come up with a reason for his not wanting physical contact. If he was going to be honest with her he would tell her it was because he was barely holding it together right now, and if she hugged him then the dam might actually break and all of the feelings that he’d been carefully ignoring would come crashing down, and he really couldn’t have her see him like that. He had an image to maintain after all. Instead, he came up with “I wouldn’t want you to get your clothes wet. People might talk, you coming out of the _men’s_ locker room with wet clothes.” He smiled his wolfish grin, and if his smile wasn’t quite as broad as usual, well he would just have to hope that Eve didn’t notice.

Eve did notice of course that the words were less assured, the body language completely off, and there was no twinkle in the eye that usually accompanied Bond’s flirting. But she also knew better than to mention any of this to the agent in front of her. She had known him long enough to know that he had to be left to deal with things in his own time, and if, or when his coping mechanisms became destructive as they had after Vesper, then and only then would she intervene. Bond was an intensely private and guarded man, and she had learnt through experience that he could also be bloody stubborn and if you pushed him he would only ever push back harder.

“You’re right of course. Everyone knows that I have to constantly fight my own instincts to keep my hands of you and that would certainly only add fuel to the fire.” Eve winked, before taking a deep sigh. She hated to have to burden him with anymore but there really was no other option. She had already exhausted all avenues that she could think off and nothing had worked. “Unfortunately I didn’t just come down here to see if I could have my way with you 007. I need some help with a delicate matter, I have done everything I can think of and nothing has made the slightest difference.”

Despite the exhaustion that he could feel creeping in Bond couldn’t help but be intrigued and a little concerned about what this delicate and urgent matter might be. He wanted to say that it would have to wait until tomorrow but he couldn’t ignore the look of concern that was etched across Eve’s face.

“Can I at least put some clothes on first, or is this a clothes off kind of mission?” This time the smile was almost genuine as Bond indicated his almost naked form.

Eve considered him for a moment, trying to hide the smile from her own face at seeing a hint of the old 007 appearing through the cracks. “Well, unless you and Q have something going on that I don’t know about I would say definitely clothes on.”

 

\--------

  


“Moneypenny will you please tell me what the hell is going on? Where is Q?” James was getting more than a little frustrated by Eve’s lack of information on the state of his new quartermaster. All he knew was that there was something wrong with Q and that Eve thought that he would be the one to fix it; why he wasn’t entirely sure, he and Q weren’t exactly close.

Eve sighed, her high heels clacking on the floor as she tried her best to keep up with Bond as he wound his way through the halls of MI6. “He’s in Q branch, which is the problem.”

It was Bond’s turn to sigh now. He was tired, he was beginning to get a headache and all he wanted to do was lie down somewhere and sleep for a week. He did not want to be playing a cryptic game of hunt the quartermaster with Eve. He was about to tell Eve all of this when he rounded the corner of the corridor to Q branch to find it filled with Q’s minions, whilst bits of tech and laptops littered the floor.

Bond came to an abrupt halt, forcing Eve to do the same, almost smacking into him. Bond couldn’t ignore the look of hope that had suddenly crossed the faces of all the people sitting and standing in the corridor, like he was some kind of saviour.

James took a slow steadying breath before turning to face Eve. “If Q is in Q branch then why are all his minions sitting out here in the corridor? What’s he blown up now?” He wasn’t entirely sure that he wanted to know the answer.

“Noth…Well there was the…”

“That’s not important now, thank you Lawrence. It seems that Q wanted to be alone so he threw them out.” Eve had the decency to at least look a little sheepish, she knew how ridiculous that had just sounded but they had been trying to gain access to Q branch for the past three days and nothing had worked. Bond was their last hope.

Bond looked down the corridor again at the expectant faces staring back at him. All work seemed to have ceased as they hung on his and Eve’s every word. “What the hell do you mean he threw them out, there’s 20 of them and there’s only one of him, and well, have you seen him lately? He’s not exactly the hulk.”

“He threw his mug at me. Then he blamed me and I quote ‘my stupid head’ for breaking it.” This came from one of the female minions, Bond had no idea what her name was and in all honesty he really didn’t care.

Bond pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes for a second, trying to gain some composure. If these lot were afraid of Q, there was no telling how they would react if he lost his own temper. “So let me get this straight. You’re all working out here, in the corridor, because you’re scared of Q? Q, about this high, glasses, ridiculous hair. Looks like he couldn’t punch his way out of a paper bag, even if it was wet.

One of the minions closest to him got up from his position on the floor at this point, and actually took a step towards him.

“Look 007, you don’t work with Q on a daily basis so I get it that you underestimate him. When he says that he can kill you he means it; one click of a button and it’s like you never existed. He’s been in there ever since, you know…”

The confidence that he had exuded only moments ago seemed to fade somewhat as his eyes darted backwards and forwards been Bond and Eve, seemingly debating whether he was risking his safety by bringing up the events of the past few days. Bond watched as the minion took a deep breath, before squaring his shoulders, attempting to exude an air of confidence that he obviously wasn’t feeling.

“Well, you know, ever since the Silva incident he’s been going over and over the surveillance footage, and the code that Silva used to hack into our systems. He’s convinced that he missed something and that he could have prevented all of this. He hasn’t left the office in 72 hours, and believe me when I say that a sleep deprived Q is a dangerous Q.”

“Oh for goodness sake, move out of the way.” Bond made his way down the corridor, causing bodies and tech to going flying as their owners desperately tried to get out of his way.

  


\--------

 

“Q, open the door!” Bond was beyond tiptoeing around, he wanted to go home damn it, and Q was just being bloody selfish.

When no answer came from the other side, Bond tried again. “Q, I know you can hear me. If you don’t open this door in the next five minutes I am going to blow it open. There’s a lot of smart people out here, and a lot of tech I’m sure we can cobble something together to get this damn door open.”

Getting no response for the second time Bond decided to try a different approach. “Okay Q seriously, if you want to convince me that you are not just a snot-nosed teenager, locking yourself away in your room and sulking is not the way to go about it.”

There was a collective gasp behind him, clearly Q’s minions were shocked that anyone, even 007 would have the guts to call their beloved leader a snot-nosed teenager.

“I’m not sulking! I’m working,” came the distinctly petulant reply from the other side of the door.

“Quite frankly I don’t care what you’re doing right now. What I do care about is that you haven’t left that room in 3 days, which means you haven’t eaten or slept in 3 days. I know you’re brilliant, but are you really so arrogant to think that your brain, deprived of food and sleep is better on its own than the 20 almost as brilliant people that you have exiled to the corridor. Just stop being so bloody childish and open the damn door.” Bond punctuated his clear frustration with the situation by punching the still as yet, unyielding door.

There was an uncomfortably long silence as it seemed that everyone collectively held their breath, waiting to see how Q would react. No one had ever spoken to him like that before, so there really was no telling how he would respond.

Bond wasn’t the only one to jump slightly as the door to Q branch slid open, revealing nothing. Well nothing he could see from the corridor. Q must have operated the door remotely.

Without waiting for any further invitation James made his way through the now open door.

  


\-------- 

  


“Q?” The room was eerily quiet as he entered. No matter what time of the day Bond came down to Q branch he would usually find at least a couple of Q’s minions milling around. Today however, with them all outside waiting with baited breath to see if he was going to get his arse handed to him by their beloved overlord, the room was silent, empty and oddly dark.

If he hadn’t been surrounded by a bank of glowing computer monitors Bond was pretty sure that he would have missed Q. As it was he was sat at his usual place, the head of the room. The large screen usually reserved specifically for missions when Intel needed to be shared was running some kind of program, the lines of code skipping across the screen as Q typed furiously at the keyboard in front of him.

As for the quartermaster himself, he was leaning back in his desk chair, eyes never leaving the screen in front of him as he typed line after line of code, an unknown language that Bond had no chance of deciphering.

“Q?” Bond tried again, this time a little louder. He didn’t want to startle the man but he did want to illicit some kind of response from him, because quite frankly he really had better things to be doing right now. Downing a bottle of whisky being one of them. Why he should be the one that was responsible for his errant quartermaster he really didn’t know, but here he was and he had certainly made more progress in the last ten minutes then the rest of MI6 had in 3 days.

There was silence for a few seconds as the typing faltered, Q never taking his eyes off of the screen in front of him. “007, as I said I am working so if you could kindly say whatever it is you want to say and then leave me alone I would very much appreciate it.” Without waiting for a response Q resumed his typing.

Bond took a step further towards the desk and placed a hand on Q’s shoulder. The typing faltered, slowed slightly but continued. The younger man still doing his utmost to ignore his presence. Without warning, James grabbed his wrists before pulling the chair around so that Q had no choice but to face him.

What Bond saw in the too young face didn’t surprise him, but it did shock him. Q had aged ten years since he had last seen him only a few days before; before all this started. He couldn’t ignore the dark circles that sat beneath his hazel eyes, or the haunted look that he saw within them. His hair was a mess, more than usual which was saying something seeing as Bond thought that he constantly looked as though he never actually brushed it in the first place.

Bond sighed, before bending down to meet Q’s eyes, his bad knee protesting all the way. “Q, look at me.” All traces of the anger that he had felt before were gone now, as he looked at the broken man before him. “Q please you need to talk to me, locking yourself away down here is not going to help anyone, it’s certainly not going to bring her back.”

“Don’t you think I bloody know that? You may think that I am still a child 007 but I am well aware of the consequences of what happened. MI6 has lost its leader, you have lost your home and I nearly lost you and it’s all my own damn fault. If I had been better, if I had been able to stop Silva hacking into our network none of this would have happened.”

Unprepared for the sudden outburst, Bond had stumbled backwards as Q had rocketed from his chair and was now pacing in front of him. Bond sat stunned for a few seconds, he was really out of his depth right now and he was beginning to wish that he had brought Eve in with him. She was better at all the touchy feely stuff then he was. If you couldn’t shoot it, sleep with it or drink it then he was pretty much lost.

Nevertheless Q needed help and right now he was the only one that he had even let near him in three days, he had to try and do something.

“Q, sit down will you. I’m exhausted, I have a headache and watching you pace back and forward is making me feel sick.” Bond tried to keep his voice low and even, it was if he was talking to a spooked animal. He was well aware that one wrong move, or one slip of the tongue could have Q flying off the handle.

Q surprisingly did as was asked of him, slumping heavily into the chair, before placing his head in his hands. Bond couldn’t be sure, but from the way his shoulders were shaking and the slight hiccups emanating from his hands, he thought that Q was crying.

“Q, will you just. Help me up will you.” Bond thrust out his hand towards Q, hoping that he would grab it, giving him a helping hand from the floor. “Before you say anything I am not getting old, I am in my prime. It’s just been a long day and well, we all need a bit of help now and again.”

He was glad to see that this elicited the tiniest of smirks from the younger man. It seemed that this was to be their pattern. Bond would comment on Q’s youth and in turn the younger man would pick on Bond’s _experience_ as he referred to it. Others, including Q would call it age.

“Come on old man, on your feet.” Q couldn’t help the little quip back as he helped Bond off of the stone floor back to his feet.

Instead of kneeling down again, Bond opted to sit on the edge of Q’s desk, he thought it the safer of the two options just in case Q decided to jump up again suddenly. He wasn’t sure that his poor abused body could take much more.

“You have got to stop beating yourself up Q. Believe me I know what it feels like to lose someone and to feel like it’s all your fault. This wasn’t your fault. You did everything that you could to stop Silva, he was just better than us.”

“That’s the point though, don’t you see. I am supposed to be the best, that’s why I got this job. That’s why I’m here. My job is to keep everyone under my charge safe and I failed. I got the head of MI6 killed because I was too stupid to see that he was hacking into our systems. I connected the computer that let him access our security systems, I let him in James. I made a mistake and M died because of it.”

Bond took a deep breath, carefully calculating his words. “MI6 is not one person Q, it’s hundreds of people all working together towards a common cause. No one person can be responsible for a success, just as no one person can be held responsible for a failure.

When I go out on missions, I am the one holding the gun but I’m not alone, there’s a whole team of people including you backing me up. Without you and your team I would have been dead a long time ago. You save people all the time, you protect people all the time, it just so happens that even the great Q is not infallible.

Talk to anyone in the building and they will tell you that they have made a mistake of some kind. M, Eve, me. People have died because of our actions or inactions, that’s just the nature of our job. I knew M for a long time, and I know for a fact that she picked you for a reason, and don’t you ever forget that. If she were here right now she would be telling you the same thing, you made the right call. There was no way you could have known what would happen when you plugged in that laptop.”

Q sighed, never once having taken his eyes off of his hands whilst Bond was speaking, he now looked up at the older man. “That’s all very well and good 007 but it doesn’t change the fact that M died because Silva was able to hack through our security systems, which means that there’s a weakness there somewhere. I need to find it. Whilst it’s still there none of you is safe. I need to be able to protect the people that I love; I need to protect _you_.

So if you’ll excuse me I still have work to do. You can tell the minions that they come back in but if I hear one word from them they will all be working in the corridor again. As for Eve, you can tell her that you’ve done your duty, you’ve given me a pep talk, but as I have said before I am not leaving this room until I have found the breach in our security and fixed it.”

With that Q turned his chair around to once again face the large monitor and resumed his typing, turning his back on Bond.

Bond though had other ideas, there was no way that he was going to let Q stay down here and work himself into exhaustion. He was useless in his current state and although Bond didn’t want to say it he was pretty sure that Q wouldn’t have been able to see the hole in their security even if it was the size of a black hole. How he was even still coherent and function was beyond him.

“Sorry Q not going to happen. You have two choices, either you leave with me now voluntarily and we let the minions take over for you so that you can get some much needed sleep and food. Or I will be forced to knock you out and drag your arse out of here.”

Bond watched as Q’s back visibly stiffened, the typing paused once again. He was obviously considering his options.

“Or option 3, I stay here and work and you leave me the hell alone.” The clipped reply hung in the air almost as a challenge. Each knew how stubborn the other was and it was just a matter of who had the most staying power.

“Fine, have it your way, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Before Q had a chance to respond James pulled out his pen from his top pocket, clicked it and swiftly jabbed it into Q’s arm.

Q flinched at the sudden pain, before realisation dawned on him. “You bastard, you complete and utter bast …”

Thankfully James was there to catch him as he slid into unconsciousness before he hit the floor. Swinging Q over his shoulder Bond spoke to the empty air. “Next time I ask for an exploding pen maybe you’ll think about giving me one.”

 

\-------- 

  


“James what ….” Eve had been waiting in the corridor for what felt like an age. There had been several times where she had to stop herself from running in through the now open door. Bond was taking too long.

But now, here he was, carrying the unconscious form of Q over his shoulder like it was the most normal and natural thing in the world.

He didn’t stop to acknowledge Eve, or the crowd of people gathered at the door.

Instead he simply waved them off, saying “Q’s going to take a few days off, so R you’re in charge. Try not to blow anything up while he’s away, you know how he hates that.”

Before R had a chance to reply Bond was around the corner and out of sight.

 

\--------

 

Q came back to consciousness to find that he was no longer in Q branch, and he was pretty sure from the feel of the sheets beneath him that he wasn’t in medical either. So where the hell was he?

His answer came almost immediately as he opened his eyes to find James Bond sitting on the bed next to him.

“Finally Sleeping Beauty awakes. I was beginning to worry about you.” James put down the book he had been reading on the bedside table before reaching for a glass of water. He handed it to Q before he could even ask.

The cool liquid soothed his throat, although his mouth still felt like it was stuffed with cotton balls; a side effect of the drug that Bond had shot him with. He still couldn’t actually believe that he had knocked him out, and oh, his entire team and Eve had been in the corridor.

“Please tell me that no one saw you carrying me out of Q branch?”

Bond did at least have the decency to look at least a little sorry. “Um, only the whole of your department and Eve. The rest of the building was pretty much empty so none of the 00’s were around.”

Q buried his head in his hands, his life was over. There was no way that his team was ever going to respect him now.

“Your entire team are petrified of you. All you have to do is go in there, give them your best evil overlord impression and you’ll be fine.”

Q couldn’t help but chuckle a little at that. He liked to keep a tight ship in Q branch but to think that anyone was even remotely scared of him was hilarious. But then again he had thrown them all out of the department for 3 days and locked himself in there; that hardly conveyed an air of stability.

Sensing that Q was going back into himself, Bond interrupted his thoughts. “So, you love me huh?”

Bond watched as Q went rigid, not moving for what seemed an eternity. He thought for a moment that he was going to deny saying it, a slip of the tongue, a moment of weakness in the middle of an emotional breakdown. But to James’ surprise Q was leaning across the bed towards him, pulling him down to him as he replied.

“Since the first day I met you.”

Before he could respond Q was kissing him with such intensity that Bond was stunned momentarily. Moments later he found himself reciprocating, lips moving to explore the softness of Q’s; he could still taste the faint hint of tea.

His hands were moving towards Q’s back to pull him closer when the kissing stopped abruptly and Q was pulling away from him with a look of pure panic on his face. “What are you doing?”

Bond chuckled, before noticing the genuine fear in Q’s eyes. Um, I’m reciprocating a kiss that you started. I thought that you wanted this.”

Q ran shaky hands through his already messy hair, before taking a deep breath. “I do. I’ve thought about kissing you for a long time. I just, I didn’t expect you to reciprocate that’s all.”

Bond shrugged. “Honestly, neither did I. I thought about stopping you but it would seem that my body has other ideas.”

“I didn’t even know you were attracted to men.”

Bond smiled, a genuine smile at this strange young man who had wormed his way into his heart. “I’m not as a rule. Just one in particular it seems.”


End file.
